K4BTY, George McClintock, owner of WTWW is selling one of the WTWW 100kw shortwave transmitters on ebay. Listing says all parts of operation are included.
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WTWW Transmitter For Sale
- Thread starter SomeRadioGuy
- Start date
Who would want one? There are not even any such lower power stations still around that would want them for parts or backup!
Take it apart and get it freighted to some 2nd or 3rd world country. Not cheap, but still cheaper then something new.
Short wave is dead in those nations; even when it existed, it was mostly lower power on the tropical bands, seldom exceeding 5 kw.
That model is not solid state. It uses tubes, and that is a no-win situation.
Harris SW-100
Harris 100 kW shortwave radio broadcast transmitter SW-100, description, photo, technical specifications, tube complement and reference list.
Maybe Cuba would want it 
Short wave is dead in those nations; even when it existed, it was mostly lower power on the tropical bands, seldom exceeding 5 kw.
That model is not solid state. It uses tubes, and that is a no-win situation.
Harris SW-100
Harris 100 kW shortwave radio broadcast transmitter SW-100, description, photo, technical specifications, tube complement and reference list.www.transmitter.be
its newer than what brazil has for radio nacional on SW but if they upgrade, they have the money to buy new
That transmitter is around 40 years old. WTWW has endless trouble keeping its primary transmitters going; can’t imagine what kind of shape a unit they’re getting rid of might be in.
Anyone think $14k is a reasonable price? Likely they are desperate for money to keep the rest of the operation from falling apart. WTWW has been on the edge of oblivion for several years now.
Anyone think $14k is a reasonable price? Likely they are desperate for money to keep the rest of the operation from falling apart. WTWW has been on the edge of oblivion for several years now.
I've seen people on this site fail at trying to give away tube transmitters for free to whomever will come get them.
There comes a limit as to how many times you can get old tubes rebuilt. Eventually, there will be no more of many types.
Hams used to love getting old tube model 1kw transmitters and rebuilding the frequency sensitive parts. But the tubes are not harder and harder to get. I saw "new" 4-400A's on eBay for $400. Those were around $40 back in the day.
Hams used to love getting old tube model 1kw transmitters and rebuilding the frequency sensitive parts. But the tubes are not harder and harder to get. I saw "new" 4-400A's on eBay for $400. Those were around $40 back in the day.
WTWW was close to teetering on the edge of oblivion when they signed on in february 2010
WTWW, when it’s on, seems to be a 2 transmitter operation now. One for Overcomer, because of course. One for Pete Peters, another deceased preacher. I recall a third transmitter for bible readings in various languages, been off for some time.
There seems to have been an unfriendly parting of ways between Ted Randall (the former WTWW chief engineer and primary on-air host) and owner George McClintock. I don't remember the precise details, except that it had been suggested around the internet that Randall allowed the facility to fall apart during his tenure. In response, Ted, his wife, and his assistant engineers assembled a zoom conference-style photo slideshow for Youtube early last year illustrating all the maintenance work they habitually did to keep WTWW running. The politics of their split-up aside, it's a fascinating tour of an aging shortwave facility and the manual fabrication work and engineering elbow grease required to keep it afloat in modern times. The transmitter being sold in the eBay auction above is the first thing seen in the video.
That transmitter also makes appearances in, or is the subject of, these two videos -- one a news segment on their broadcasts to Ukraine, and the other a guided facility walkabout given to a listener:
For what it's worth, I have no connection to McClintock or Randall, other than that I once frequently listened to WTWW's online stream when Randall was running it as a very cool Boss Radio re-creation, featuring a bunch of former Boss jocks playing 50s, 60s, and 70s oldies. (On the stream, they actually had great audio processing, reminiscent of the KRTH Los Angeles fogged cabinet sound of the '80s and '90s.) For anyone interested in the (creatively embellished) history of how that shortwave-based Boss Radio re-creation came about, and a list of some of its jocks, it's here (with photos). The aforementioned listener also got a little bit of Randall on video, describing his motivation for trying to "make shortwave interesting again," here:
Oh, and the descendant of their Boss Radio format, with '80s mixed in, lives on at its current WRMI home via http://216.108.236.95:8020/stream ... plus, of course, on actual shortwave as well.
Edit: found another video -- an interview with San Diego's Dave Mason about his participation as a jock in WTWW's old Boss format and its broadcasts to Ukraine:
That transmitter also makes appearances in, or is the subject of, these two videos -- one a news segment on their broadcasts to Ukraine, and the other a guided facility walkabout given to a listener:
For what it's worth, I have no connection to McClintock or Randall, other than that I once frequently listened to WTWW's online stream when Randall was running it as a very cool Boss Radio re-creation, featuring a bunch of former Boss jocks playing 50s, 60s, and 70s oldies. (On the stream, they actually had great audio processing, reminiscent of the KRTH Los Angeles fogged cabinet sound of the '80s and '90s.) For anyone interested in the (creatively embellished) history of how that shortwave-based Boss Radio re-creation came about, and a list of some of its jocks, it's here (with photos). The aforementioned listener also got a little bit of Randall on video, describing his motivation for trying to "make shortwave interesting again," here:
Oh, and the descendant of their Boss Radio format, with '80s mixed in, lives on at its current WRMI home via http://216.108.236.95:8020/stream ... plus, of course, on actual shortwave as well.
Edit: found another video -- an interview with San Diego's Dave Mason about his participation as a jock in WTWW's old Boss format and its broadcasts to Ukraine:
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Its not that aging.... WTWW isnt even 2 decades old
Ted has a great voice but he and I have had a few run ins where he didnt like how I pointed out one of WTWW's transmitters one day sounded awful for the better part of the day.
Ted has a great voice but he and I have had a few run ins where he didnt like how I pointed out one of WTWW's transmitters one day sounded awful for the better part of the day.
The WTWW transmitters are all secondhand units, so much older than the station itself. I think a couple of them were the originals at KNLS in Alaska, and another was at one of the religious outlets in the western Pacific, can’t recall whether Guam or Palau.
In one of the videos, he confirmed that the transmitter being sold on eBay came from KNLS, yes. It gave the unit to them for free.
The shipping costs transporting it from Alaska to Tennessee had to have been insane, even 20 years ago. 😲
Short wave is dead in those nations; even when it existed, it was mostly lower power on the tropical bands, seldom exceeding 5 kw.
That model is not solid state. It uses tubes, and that is a no-win situation.
Harris SW-100
Harris 100 kW shortwave radio broadcast transmitter SW-100, description, photo, technical specifications, tube complement and reference list.
Packing up the shortwave transmitter like:
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